So my iMac has been with me for about 4 days. Here are my quick first impressions of Leopard 10.5.2 as I explore it further in the coming days.
1) I've noticed improved security overall. For example, before installing apps that I've downloaded, Leopard actually pops up a dialog box requesting my permission and stating the source of the download. Similar to UAC on Vista?? But definitely not as pervasive and irritating.
2) For the dock, the new small blue glowing oval thingy below the application that is currently running is REALLY hard to see. I prefer what's on Tiger, where it's just a simple black triangle to denote an open application.
3) Software update has had minor changes and works slightly differently regarding the way it downloads and installs updates. But I like this change.
4) I would have preferred more new wallpapers. Getting a bit sick of the old ones, and the new one's aren't really fantastic. Ok I guess I'm supposed to use my own pictures.
5) LEOPARD'S TEXT-TO-SPEECH ROCKS! I love the new voice Alex. Finally it speaks close to a human, with proper pauses and a deep rich voice. Absolutely a joy to hear him speak!
6) I like the new finder. Cover flow rocks.
Overall, it's still very evidently OS X. The changes in Leopard are visible, some of which significant, but not in a way that you're thrown into a completely new environment.
Showing posts with label Leopard. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Leopard. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Leopard: BSOD as PC icon
This is simply classic... what a good laugh! This is the icon for PCs on a network in Leopard.
It's a CRT monitor displaying a Win98 blue screen of death!
Is this taken a bit too far for a professional worldwide OS? Or is it just a harmless joke at Microsoft?
You decide. But for now, just take a good laugh.
Leopard: Now shipping with free blue screens
It seems that Leopard could have done with more beta testing before the launch day, because immediately after users bought Leopard to install on their Macs, serious and even laughable problems have surfaced.
We all are aware of the infamous blue screen on PCs, but apparently, Leopard does throw up a blue screen when it's unhappy too! Unbelievable? Read the crn article here. The article reads that "Apple is confirming that some installations of its Leopard operating system have left a Blue Screen of Death, and recommends the OS be reinstalled or installers use "line commands" to get the systems booting properly. "
After completing an upgrade installation of Leopard and restarting the computer, a blue screen may appear for an extended period of time, claims Apple who has admitted to this glitch.
The reason for this? Apple says that "you may have third-party "enhancement" software installed that does not work with Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. "
Thankfully, a workaround has been documented here for affected users.
I'm disappointed, really. This isn't the OS X we've come to know about, but I guess it's the direct result of pushing for an early launch date before sufficient testing was done. Even before 1-2 weeks of the launch, Leopard had yet to acquire GM status, and that was scary. I can only hope that Apple will permanently fix this fast and my advice is to do a full system backup before upgrading from previous versions of OS X to Leopard. Apple should have released a tool like the Vista Upgrade Advisor so that these problems can be identified before the installation is done and users can uninstall the incompatible software before proceeding with the full Leopard installation, that'd be thoughtful!
Argh... utterly unacceptable, Apple!
We all are aware of the infamous blue screen on PCs, but apparently, Leopard does throw up a blue screen when it's unhappy too! Unbelievable? Read the crn article here. The article reads that "Apple is confirming that some installations of its Leopard operating system have left a Blue Screen of Death, and recommends the OS be reinstalled or installers use "line commands" to get the systems booting properly. "
After completing an upgrade installation of Leopard and restarting the computer, a blue screen may appear for an extended period of time, claims Apple who has admitted to this glitch.
The reason for this? Apple says that "you may have third-party "enhancement" software installed that does not work with Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. "
Thankfully, a workaround has been documented here for affected users.
I'm disappointed, really. This isn't the OS X we've come to know about, but I guess it's the direct result of pushing for an early launch date before sufficient testing was done. Even before 1-2 weeks of the launch, Leopard had yet to acquire GM status, and that was scary. I can only hope that Apple will permanently fix this fast and my advice is to do a full system backup before upgrading from previous versions of OS X to Leopard. Apple should have released a tool like the Vista Upgrade Advisor so that these problems can be identified before the installation is done and users can uninstall the incompatible software before proceeding with the full Leopard installation, that'd be thoughtful!
Argh... utterly unacceptable, Apple!
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Leopard: The ratings
In order to help you decide if Leopard is worth your buck, I have decided to rate this new OS from Apple, using what I call the "Finder heads"!
I don’t believe in one single rating, especially for such a major product like this, because different users come from different backgrounds and hence will come to different conclusions as to how good Leopard is (this is what I said in my podcast). Some users wanting to use Leopard might be PC users, or existing Mac users, and these two groups of consumers will come to rate Leopard very differently, thus one rating just isn’t sufficient.
Broadly, I can classify users wanting to purchase Leopard into 4 groups:
1) Existing Mac users (OS X 10.4 “Tiger”)
2) Longtime Windows XP users
3) Windows Vista users
4) Generic Linux users (e.g. Ubuntu, Linspire)
Now let’s rate Leopard based on these 4 main categories, and you’ll realise, my ratings would be very different!
2.5/5. I’ve said before, Leopard is a minor upgrade and if you’re currently using Tiger, Leopard isn’t going to be wham-bang fantastic and all that worthy of praise. Other than a few new important features like Time Machine and a revised Finder (and maybe Stacks), the rest are just minor upgrades and appearance changes, such as the new Dock. You’ll find that forking out S$238 is a bit pricey, and life would still go on even without Leopard. If I’m generous, 3/5. Nothing more than that.
3.5/5. This is a little more tricky… I was contemplating between a 3.5 or a 4, because some features in Leopard are actually found in Vista, such as Time Machine, which is actually similar in concept to Previous Versions in Vista, and also the parental controls stuff… But Apple has sort of made things look way cooler than in Vista. For example, Time Machine looks so much cooler than Previous Versions, so based on that, you might want to slap a 4/5 on Leopard, but purely from a feature standpoint, I think a 3.5 would be more realistic.
4/5. In terms of security (viruses/online threats), many Linux systems and distributions are about as secure as Leopard, because Mac OS and Linux are built on the same, rock-solid unix foundation, with Leopard being closed source but most Linux offerings being open source.
Leopard is superior to Linux in that it is more polished and mature, and the UI seems more coherent and pleasant as compared to, say, the colourful and amateurish KDE desktop environment. Compatibility should be better on a Mac than on Linux too, and of course, you don’t need to deal with codes and weird gibberish for you to run/install Leopard. Furthermore, because Leopard is proprietary software, you will have long term support from Apple and can be assured of constant quality software updates. On Linux, not all systems are LTS, and many assume a higher level of technical know-how on the part of the user, so Linux is for the geeks, but Leopard is for the rest of us.
I don’t believe in one single rating, especially for such a major product like this, because different users come from different backgrounds and hence will come to different conclusions as to how good Leopard is (this is what I said in my podcast). Some users wanting to use Leopard might be PC users, or existing Mac users, and these two groups of consumers will come to rate Leopard very differently, thus one rating just isn’t sufficient.
Broadly, I can classify users wanting to purchase Leopard into 4 groups:
1) Existing Mac users (OS X 10.4 “Tiger”)
2) Longtime Windows XP users
3) Windows Vista users
4) Generic Linux users (e.g. Ubuntu, Linspire)
Now let’s rate Leopard based on these 4 main categories, and you’ll realise, my ratings would be very different!
For existing Mac users (OS X 10.4 “Tiger”)
Rating:
2.5/5. I’ve said before, Leopard is a minor upgrade and if you’re currently using Tiger, Leopard isn’t going to be wham-bang fantastic and all that worthy of praise. Other than a few new important features like Time Machine and a revised Finder (and maybe Stacks), the rest are just minor upgrades and appearance changes, such as the new Dock. You’ll find that forking out S$238 is a bit pricey, and life would still go on even without Leopard. If I’m generous, 3/5. Nothing more than that.For longtime Windows XP users
Rating:
5/5. Flawless. If you’re still on XP, and you switch to the dark side and take up Leopard, you’d be wondering why didn’t you switch earlier and rescue yourself from the countless security and reliability issues associated XP. To any XP user, Leopard is quite clearly superior in almost every way. The UI’s stunning, the platform is as secure as can be (because it’s unix), there are little problems, blue screens or error messages popping up now and then, and it’s so simple and easy to use! So for that, Leopard thoroughly deserves a perfect 5.
5/5. Flawless. If you’re still on XP, and you switch to the dark side and take up Leopard, you’d be wondering why didn’t you switch earlier and rescue yourself from the countless security and reliability issues associated XP. To any XP user, Leopard is quite clearly superior in almost every way. The UI’s stunning, the platform is as secure as can be (because it’s unix), there are little problems, blue screens or error messages popping up now and then, and it’s so simple and easy to use! So for that, Leopard thoroughly deserves a perfect 5.For Windows Vista users
Rating:
3.5/5. This is a little more tricky… I was contemplating between a 3.5 or a 4, because some features in Leopard are actually found in Vista, such as Time Machine, which is actually similar in concept to Previous Versions in Vista, and also the parental controls stuff… But Apple has sort of made things look way cooler than in Vista. For example, Time Machine looks so much cooler than Previous Versions, so based on that, you might want to slap a 4/5 on Leopard, but purely from a feature standpoint, I think a 3.5 would be more realistic.For generic Linux users (Ubuntu, Linspire etc.)
Rating:
4/5. In terms of security (viruses/online threats), many Linux systems and distributions are about as secure as Leopard, because Mac OS and Linux are built on the same, rock-solid unix foundation, with Leopard being closed source but most Linux offerings being open source.Leopard is superior to Linux in that it is more polished and mature, and the UI seems more coherent and pleasant as compared to, say, the colourful and amateurish KDE desktop environment. Compatibility should be better on a Mac than on Linux too, and of course, you don’t need to deal with codes and weird gibberish for you to run/install Leopard. Furthermore, because Leopard is proprietary software, you will have long term support from Apple and can be assured of constant quality software updates. On Linux, not all systems are LTS, and many assume a higher level of technical know-how on the part of the user, so Linux is for the geeks, but Leopard is for the rest of us.
Conclusion
I hope these few figures will give you a clearer picture of Leopard. In general, if I rate this thing 4 "Finder heads" and above, this product is absolutely worth your money and is a must-get! I give a 3-3.5 heads, then it's an average product. If you see less than 3 heads, think twice before paying!
Friday, October 26, 2007
Leopard: Comments on new features
It was an extremely sad thing that I didn’t actually get to see the countdown timer on Apple’s webpage at 0 days, 0 hours and 1 sec before the official release. Instead, I was eating sushi with Fang Lin, Serena and Althea at Parkway!
But anyway, I’m still happy that Leopard, the OS I had been waiting for for ages, is finally finally out, and at a price a hell lot cheaper than most Vista editions. But of course if you’re sharp, you would know that the price of Leopard and Vista are not directly comparable since Vista is a bigger leap from XP than Leopard is from Tiger and so it would naturally be that Vista warrants a heftier price tag. Leopard retails at S$238 for an individual license, but if you plan to deploy this cat on more than one Mac, the 5 license family pack is available for S$369. I find the price to be the major point of contention for us users. If this thing retailed at say 50 bucks lower, it would make a no-brainer update, but now that it costs a bit more than what is reasonable (I feel), it makes people think twice.
Price issues aside, I would like to comment a bit about the 10 new major features. Paul’s Win SuperSite provides comprehensive screenshots of Leopard here and it’s advisable to take a look before reading on.
1) New Desktop
The desktop has not undergone severe changes, and it is still, at first glance, identifiable as Mac OS X. My only complain here has to do with the half-transparent top menu bar which honestly looks disgusting, aesthetically. It picks up the colour of your wallpaper beneath it and can really look awfully bad if your wallpaper is of a single colour, like this one:
I would prefer if the menu bar just remained the same as Tiger. The new dock looks much better than Tiger’s, and who really cares if it didn’t make sense putting it up on the left or right of the screen! It looks gorgeous and 3D-like.
2) Finder
I absolutely love the fact that the new Finder is modelled after iTunes UI, but initially it may get a bit confusing which is iTunes and Finder when you do the Expose. I dislike the new blue folder icons, because I find them too bluish and lack colour, which makes it less interesting. Cover flow is cool, but the images take some time to load when scrolling through rapidly. Lastly, thank goodness they abandoned the brushed metal UI going for a more standardized window design with a simple gray gradient, it looks much more unified and pleasing to the eye.
For a screenshot of what I'm talking about, refer here.
3) Quick Look
I have no complains on this for now, it is an ingenious idea and should benefit everyone. It also challenges the conventional notion of launching an application to view a file. All in all, Quick Look is a convenient useful feature.
4) Time Machine
Haha… This is the feature that gets everyone talking. I still think, right up to this day, that the UI is super-duper amazingly crazy. I mean, a star field and literally going back in time in space?! But then again, this is so typical of the Apple we know, which is so obsessed over making things all hyped-up and cool by overloading excessive animation and graphics, with the emphasis of appearance and aesthetics over functionality and practicality. Not to say that the star field isn’t functional, but surely if Microsoft would to do such a thing, they would present this in the simple, unexciting form of a drop-down list to choose from or something of the like, but definitely not a crazy UI like Time Machine. I feel that the emphasis on UI is a tad too much, and it may be a better idea to use a conventional list instead, despite how usual it might be. But Apple being Apple, it’s their trademark to make things look ‘cool’ with a visual appeal, so I don't really blame them for doing an absurd UI.
5) Mail
I can’t say much about Mail, because I don’t use it on a regular basis (it’s only synced with my Gmail but I use Yahoo! as my primary email) and I don’t really care about the new additions to it as web-based email seems to be the way to go today and few people use such desktop email software like Mail or even Outlook Express.
6) iChat
Again, I’m opinion-less on this, simple because I don’t use iChat. I’m on Adium and Skype.
7) Spaces
Apple has made it seem as if they were the first to create something like Spaces with the concept of multiple desktops or workspaces, but in reality, Linux did that long time ago. For example, Linux Ubuntu currently features this, and so Spaces is not entirely original in concept. But I must applaud Apple for making this much better than that found on Ubuntu or anywhere else. Spaces is more polished, more elegant, and better managed than anything I’ve used.
8) Safari Web Browser
Nothing much to say about this too, just that I hope it crashes less frequently on Leopard.
9) Parental Controls
I don’t use this feature even in Tiger, so I have no comments on Parental Controls, but I’d like to add that Vista has such a thing too.
10) Boot Camp
Boot Camp on Leopard is no longer in beta, and it runs XP and Vista natively with drivers for most of the hardware on your Mac, for example, your Wi-Fi and iSight. If you need to run Windows within Mac, you should purchase Parallel Desktop instead for a minimal price.
So this is a brief rundown of Leopard for you just a few hours after the worldwide release. If you think you want to purchase this cat and the price is justified, I give you my assurance that Leopard is a top-notch, solid operating system that just works. If not, then sticking with Tiger is pretty fine. I’m leaving my iBook at Tiger after all.
But anyway, I’m still happy that Leopard, the OS I had been waiting for for ages, is finally finally out, and at a price a hell lot cheaper than most Vista editions. But of course if you’re sharp, you would know that the price of Leopard and Vista are not directly comparable since Vista is a bigger leap from XP than Leopard is from Tiger and so it would naturally be that Vista warrants a heftier price tag. Leopard retails at S$238 for an individual license, but if you plan to deploy this cat on more than one Mac, the 5 license family pack is available for S$369. I find the price to be the major point of contention for us users. If this thing retailed at say 50 bucks lower, it would make a no-brainer update, but now that it costs a bit more than what is reasonable (I feel), it makes people think twice.
Price issues aside, I would like to comment a bit about the 10 new major features. Paul’s Win SuperSite provides comprehensive screenshots of Leopard here and it’s advisable to take a look before reading on.
1) New Desktop
The desktop has not undergone severe changes, and it is still, at first glance, identifiable as Mac OS X. My only complain here has to do with the half-transparent top menu bar which honestly looks disgusting, aesthetically. It picks up the colour of your wallpaper beneath it and can really look awfully bad if your wallpaper is of a single colour, like this one:
I would prefer if the menu bar just remained the same as Tiger. The new dock looks much better than Tiger’s, and who really cares if it didn’t make sense putting it up on the left or right of the screen! It looks gorgeous and 3D-like.
2) Finder
I absolutely love the fact that the new Finder is modelled after iTunes UI, but initially it may get a bit confusing which is iTunes and Finder when you do the Expose. I dislike the new blue folder icons, because I find them too bluish and lack colour, which makes it less interesting. Cover flow is cool, but the images take some time to load when scrolling through rapidly. Lastly, thank goodness they abandoned the brushed metal UI going for a more standardized window design with a simple gray gradient, it looks much more unified and pleasing to the eye.
For a screenshot of what I'm talking about, refer here.
3) Quick Look
I have no complains on this for now, it is an ingenious idea and should benefit everyone. It also challenges the conventional notion of launching an application to view a file. All in all, Quick Look is a convenient useful feature.
4) Time Machine
Haha… This is the feature that gets everyone talking. I still think, right up to this day, that the UI is super-duper amazingly crazy. I mean, a star field and literally going back in time in space?! But then again, this is so typical of the Apple we know, which is so obsessed over making things all hyped-up and cool by overloading excessive animation and graphics, with the emphasis of appearance and aesthetics over functionality and practicality. Not to say that the star field isn’t functional, but surely if Microsoft would to do such a thing, they would present this in the simple, unexciting form of a drop-down list to choose from or something of the like, but definitely not a crazy UI like Time Machine. I feel that the emphasis on UI is a tad too much, and it may be a better idea to use a conventional list instead, despite how usual it might be. But Apple being Apple, it’s their trademark to make things look ‘cool’ with a visual appeal, so I don't really blame them for doing an absurd UI.
5) Mail
I can’t say much about Mail, because I don’t use it on a regular basis (it’s only synced with my Gmail but I use Yahoo! as my primary email) and I don’t really care about the new additions to it as web-based email seems to be the way to go today and few people use such desktop email software like Mail or even Outlook Express.
6) iChat
Again, I’m opinion-less on this, simple because I don’t use iChat. I’m on Adium and Skype.
7) Spaces
Apple has made it seem as if they were the first to create something like Spaces with the concept of multiple desktops or workspaces, but in reality, Linux did that long time ago. For example, Linux Ubuntu currently features this, and so Spaces is not entirely original in concept. But I must applaud Apple for making this much better than that found on Ubuntu or anywhere else. Spaces is more polished, more elegant, and better managed than anything I’ve used.
8) Safari Web Browser
Nothing much to say about this too, just that I hope it crashes less frequently on Leopard.
9) Parental Controls
I don’t use this feature even in Tiger, so I have no comments on Parental Controls, but I’d like to add that Vista has such a thing too.
10) Boot Camp
Boot Camp on Leopard is no longer in beta, and it runs XP and Vista natively with drivers for most of the hardware on your Mac, for example, your Wi-Fi and iSight. If you need to run Windows within Mac, you should purchase Parallel Desktop instead for a minimal price.
So this is a brief rundown of Leopard for you just a few hours after the worldwide release. If you think you want to purchase this cat and the price is justified, I give you my assurance that Leopard is a top-notch, solid operating system that just works. If not, then sticking with Tiger is pretty fine. I’m leaving my iBook at Tiger after all.
Thursday, October 25, 2007
1 day to go...
I'm all excited about the Leopard launch... despite some things that I dislike regarding the way Apple markets Leopard, like giving the false impression to customers that it's a big major upgrade, but in actual fact, it's just a bloated "service pack". But whatever it is, it's still something for us Apple users to look forward to, and I'm excited because it's something new from Apple. You'd probably have noticed, I'm always excited about new products from Apple, even if it may not be flawless.
For the record: here's the countdown currently:
Also, tomorrow, iShop will be holding a special Leopard arriving party event at iShop, level 3 Orchard Cineleisure at 6pm. I should be there just for the fun of it, should have some freebies, and it should probably tempt you to part with $238 for a copy!
For the record: here's the countdown currently:
Also, tomorrow, iShop will be holding a special Leopard arriving party event at iShop, level 3 Orchard Cineleisure at 6pm. I should be there just for the fun of it, should have some freebies, and it should probably tempt you to part with $238 for a copy!
Saturday, October 20, 2007
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Leopard: Thoughts before release
Is it just me or do you also think that the countdown timer on Apple’s homepage seems to fuel more excitement and urge you to pre-order a copy of Leopard?
Haha… Just before the ferocious Leopard is revealed to the world in about 9 days time, I have one thought which I would like to share with you.
Presonally, I feel that this release couldn’t have arrived at a worst time than now, frankly, considering the unpleasant recent series of events with the iPhone and update 1.1.1, which I believe has inflicted a certain amount of damage to Apple as a brand name, and with the current shaky reputation it has, Leopard might not be so well-received initially until consumer confidence restores back.
I mean, although those who jailbroke their iPhone may be a small community of users, but Apple must not forget that these are the “tech geeks”, the true genuine Apple supporters who will very willingly buy the next thing that Apple releases, so now that their trust in Apple has been shaken, it would affect their overall impression of Apple. And they aren’t going to keep quiet about everything, these guys have a voice, and if their unhappy, their gonna make some noise, and the rest of us users will be convinced to adopt a similar negative impression of Apple, well at least temporarily. And so, with this teetering situation Apple is in right now, involved in iPhone lawsuits, and even with the recent attack by environmental group Greenpeace on the environmentally unfriendly iPhone, the release of Leopard would take place against a less-than-ideal backdrop, and this may have implications on the initial adoption of Leopard.
Do you share the same sentiments?
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Leopard: It's OFFICIAL!
It's on the Apple website this very moment I'm typing, it's official:
26 Oct is the beautiful day for Leopard release!
Thanks Weng for telling me!
Countdown! 10,9,8,7...
Apple has kinda dropped the veil of uncertainty, though not officially. The release date for Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard as according to an article on MacNN based on details from Apple retail stores all agree that THE date is 26th October 07. Nope, not the 23rd or 27th.
That's a close 10 days more! (Aren't you tingling in excitement?) According to the article on MacNN, "Apple has reportedly scheduled a series of launch events at 6 pm on the day of its release and plans to keep stores open until midnight as part of its launch, according to ifoAppleStore. "
The article continues, saying that it is uncertain if Leopard has been declared GM (golden master), the Apple equivalent of the Microsoft Windows RTM (release to manufacturing), but I speculate that GM should be out very soon.
I doubt that this release would be as grand as the iPhone launch, and I suspect it won't draw as big a crowd outside Apple stores as did the iPhone, for the simple fact that this isn't version 10.0. But nonetheless, Mac addicts would patiently queue up just to take home the new 64bit operating system which has been delayed by about half a year (don't worry, not 5 years).
I've been so patiently awaiting this moment to arrive, I waited past the Core 2 Duos to come out, the new iMac, Windows Vista, and now that Leopard is shipping in 10 days time, it's now the sweetest time for me to purchase a new desktop replacement, an iMac running Vista of course.
Countdown, today is 10 MORE DAYS TO LEOPARD!
That's a close 10 days more! (Aren't you tingling in excitement?) According to the article on MacNN, "Apple has reportedly scheduled a series of launch events at 6 pm on the day of its release and plans to keep stores open until midnight as part of its launch, according to ifoAppleStore. "
The article continues, saying that it is uncertain if Leopard has been declared GM (golden master), the Apple equivalent of the Microsoft Windows RTM (release to manufacturing), but I speculate that GM should be out very soon.
I doubt that this release would be as grand as the iPhone launch, and I suspect it won't draw as big a crowd outside Apple stores as did the iPhone, for the simple fact that this isn't version 10.0. But nonetheless, Mac addicts would patiently queue up just to take home the new 64bit operating system which has been delayed by about half a year (don't worry, not 5 years).
I've been so patiently awaiting this moment to arrive, I waited past the Core 2 Duos to come out, the new iMac, Windows Vista, and now that Leopard is shipping in 10 days time, it's now the sweetest time for me to purchase a new desktop replacement, an iMac running Vista of course.
Countdown, today is 10 MORE DAYS TO LEOPARD!
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